Revision as of 15:40, 31 January 2013

W3C management reviews W3C priorities and resources on an ongoing basis, and annually (typically mid-year) explores major re-allocations of resources to align with important trends. In early 2013 W3C staff identified some potential directions for W3C (technical, organizational, etc.). We have launched ten task forces to develop proposals with community participation according to the #Calendar below.

If you are interested in participating in a task force, please contact the lead(s). Note that these topics are in development; W3C has not allocated resources to them other than to develop proposals.

Proposals

Open Web Platform

Web Payments

Led by Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>

Web application developers want to monetise their work, particularly
on mobile where ads are not as effective as on desktop. The Open Web
Platform does not yet offer standard ways to transfer money,
demonstrate proof-of-purchase, and meet other payment needs.
Without a standard, developers are forced to turn to native platforms,
or use solutions that work for one service provide but not another.

There was a headlights project on this last year, as well as a
Community Group looking at a particular approach. The staff believes
that the platform and industry have evolved in the past year to the
point where we need to revisit the question as a community.

HTML5 Performance

Led by Philippe Le Hégaret <plh@w3.org>

W3C works on individual components of the web architecture, driven by
the functional needs of our Members. This particular focus may lead us
to miss system-level considerations such as the overall performance of
typical implementations. While performance suffers for a variety of
reasons, web standards could be part of the problem. In the past,
when we looked at performance we instrumented the architecture to
allow performance to be measured. This is quite different from a
system level focus on addressing and improving performance.

As we mature to take a platform level view of our work, we should
address performance issues to grow the acceptance of our standards.

Closing the Gap with Native

Led by Dominique Hazaël-Massieux <dom@w3.org>

Analysts, developers, and businesses report that the Open Web Platform
suffers in comparison to certain native platforms. Because we do not
want to fall behind, we must enhance the platform so that it can be
used for the innovative applications being written today to native
platforms.

Which Community and Business Groups Should Transition to Working Group

Led by Coralie Mercier <coralie@w3.org>

We now have well over one hundred Community and Business Groups. This task force will review them to determine which
are the best candidates for advancing work to a Working Group. In addition, the task force may establish which are up and coming, which are stalled, which should be closed, and so on. But the primary output of this task force will be a
recommendation for which group deliverables should move to the
Recommendation Track.

Brand and Communications

Web Stewardship

Led by Wendy Seltzer <wseltzer@w3.org>

The Open Web is a commons, providing value to many and owned by
none. As such, key features such as security, accessibility,
internationalization, and privacy pose classic public goods problems
-- everyone wants them more than anyone individually wants to invest
in providing them. W3C should position itself as steward of the Open
Web commons and the values that keep it vibrant. Our work is not only
to build the technical standards for the Open Web Platform, but to
protect the Web ecosystem.

This headlights project aims to identify areas in which W3C should
bolster its role as steward for the Web community and specific
activities to promote in that frame.

W3C Brand

Led by Marilyn Siderwicz <msiderwicz@w3.org>

W3C began a brand research project at the end of 2012, and is beginning to
receive the research results. The purpose of this headlights project is to determine what brand development will follow brand research. Improved institutional brand name recognition will help W3C better position itself as an industry leader as we celebrate our organization's 20th year. Improved visual
identity and messaging also will strengthen our value proposition, and
help business development recruit new members, attract members from
new industries, and retain our existing members. Please note the
connection to the "Web Stewardship" headlights task force.

W3C Anniversaries

Led by Marilyn Siderwicz <msiderwicz@w3.org>

W3C should organize some way to recognize the 20th anniversary of W3C (and 25th of the Web) in 2014. The form of recognition is to be determined (e.g., one event, multiple events, online activities, etc.). This headlights task force will discuss what sort of celebration W3C should organize, and what partnerships will help us achieve those goals. This project connects closely with other headlights projects, as the anniversary would be an important opportunity to disseminate the new brand and launch an updated Web site.

Site Redesign

Led by Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>

W3C reaches multiple audiences through different parts of its Web site. External audiences include technical and business users. Internal audiences include the Membership and groups (Working Groups, Interest Groups, etc.). The purpose of this project is to identify ways to better serve these audiences through our Web site.

The current public site and portions of the Member site were launched in 2009. There have been many changes at W3C since then, including audience expectations and how we want to meet their needs, the launch of webplatform.org, and of course Web technology itself, enabling improved user experiences.

This task force will identify core audiences and their needs, propose a prioritization and site redesign plan to W3C management. If funded, we
would then carry out the plan presumably for a 2014 launch. Please note the connection to the "W3C Branding" task force, which will renew our visual identity.

Productivity

Group Analytics and Dashboards

Led by Ted Guild <ted@w3.org>

At times it is useful to know what groups are active, inactive,
expanding, contracting, concluding, producing specs or ready for a new
stage rechartering or graduating from CG to WG. Data about groups
would be useful to management, to business development, Members,
organizations and individuals wondering about timing of getting
involved and the groups themselves. The proposal is to identify key
audiences, understand through discussions with them what data and analytics would help them achieve their goals, and discuss ideas for visualizing that
data, e.g,. through dashboards. This project would present new dashboards or other services using the templates provided by the site redesign project.

Group Chair Training

Led by Philippe Le Hégaret <plh@w3.org> and Thomas Roessler <tlr@w3.org>

Working Group chairs play a critical role to W3C's success, as they drive
consensus and operations of our groups. While chairing is an art, not
a craft, the community has requested additional training, especially for new chairs.

At this time, a lot of W3C's chair training is informal, and "on the
job", with a steep learning curve. A lot of the training on the job is
in the hands of Team Contacts. As we grow into additional areas and
recruit Working Group chairs from outside our core community, the need
for more systematic and improved Chair training becomes evident. The
purpose of this headlights project is to establish a training
curriculum for chairs, part modernized guidebook for self-study, and
part in-person training session for groups of chairs. For the
in-person part, drawing upon existing chairs and their expertise and
experience would be an important element.

Calendar

31 January: Announcement to public and Membership and invitations to participate

19 February: Formal "launch dates" for task forces

20 February - June: Idea Development

9-11 June: Discussion at AC Meeting 2013

June - July: Further refinement

July: W3M will prioritize mature proposals and (re)allocate resources to pursuing some of them.